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Thursday, July 17, 2008

4:06 pm - Wrapping things up. One attendee who was a candidate for office discusses how she had a degree from Harvard but her male opponent who didn't attend college ran ads portraying her as a blonde ditz. She says the media accepted that label without questioning. This leads to a discussion of how the cable news pundits [specifically mentioning how vile Chris Matthews has been] have been guilty of belittling women on camera. This leads to someone mentioning Hillary Clinton's campaign and how she bristles at those who bandy the theme of "any woman but her".

**Well...I have an issue with that as necessarily being a 'problem' but this only serves the purpose of highlighting we have various needs, various voices. We can find common ground. We need to top relying on defining ourselves and being divided by LABELS.

It should also be mentioned that this year's NetRoots schedule overlaps the BlogHer conference in San Francisco. Some more planning and discussions are clearly necessary if people are seriously invested in building coalitions instead of competing against each other in a so-called progressive movement. The main reason I attended this conference is because I applied for a DFA scholarship. I wasn't selected but I received a 90% discount. I had a airline credit and have been generously hosted by locals. This was a wonderful opportunity to meet other people and realize there are women in this world are earning a living and doing things they enjoy.